How to be consistent with meditation while travelling?

Every time use start getting consistent with your meditation routine and there is an upcoming vacation trip or a business trips that will ruin your timetable. This happens with every meditator! But it can be neglected. Meditation can be done regularly wherever you are and whenever you want to! It is just about setting right priorities and timetable for your trip beforehand.

We will discuss about the best strategies and tips that you can implement if you are a frequent traveler, to keep your meditation journey continuous without any vacations!

1.      Planning

2.      Morning meditation.

3.      Select your place.

4.      Meditate while on the go.

5.      Walking meditation.

6.      Mindful eating.

7.      Sleep meditation.

8.      Mini meditations.

1. Planning:

Planning your meditation sessions beforehand is the most important thing to do to keep your streak going! Make meditation schedule along with the travelling schedule, or at least keep in mind the meditation breaks you will need while planning your trip. If you plan beforehand, you will not have to run behind finding breaks in which you can meditate. And you mind will automatically jump to meditation mode when it is the time to meditate!

Bringing the mind to meditative state is the most important thing, because when you change your surroundings and timings for meditation, your mind needs time to adjust to that new schedule.

Other important thing to keep in mind while planning, is to make a routine, which means to meditate on the same place and same time during the whole trip, if possible. You might take a day or two to adjust in the new surrounding but after that, your mind will be easily habituated to meditate if done on the same place.

It is important that you choose your meditation spot wisely. Here is an article that will help you do it.

2. Morning meditation:

Meditating in the morning is the best thing you can do. And that is relatively easy while you are travelling, because you are always in your hotel room, and you can pick a spot there are meditate there daily.

If you are on an adventure trip or a camp, you can simply pick a nice clearing below the trees near your camp, and wake up early to meditate, or meditate inside your tent to avoid eyes before continuing your day's adventure. It would be difficult to keep changing the spots as you change your tents but being close to the nature helps a lot!

3. Select your place:

Selecting the right place is one of the most important things while you are travelling and keeping up with meditation. The reason for that is you don’t have your home there. You just have the hotel room or a tent, if you are camping. And so, you will constantly be in the sight of either your family member or friends. This attention prevents some meditators to focus on the meditation.

There are a few things you can do in this case. One of them is finding a place where there is no footfall. The hotel terrace can be a good place if you can get the permission.

And there are infinite possibilities if you are camping. In this case the place won't matter that much as you are already in a place that is calm and natural. But finding the perfect clearing good for sitting to meditate for 20 to 30 minutes can be a hard thing in the wild. The tent can be another place where you can isolate yourself to find the peace required for meditating.

4. Meditating on the go:

Meditating while you are actually ‘travelling’ can also be helpful to add that little mindfulness. 

Preferably sit on the last bus seat and nobody will disturb you! And the people who will see you just think you are sleeping! This has helped me a lot when I am travelling by bus. You can not do a proper meditation like vipassana while travelling but you can do a mini meditation or observation meditation.   

5. Walking meditation:

Walking meditation is as important as sitting meditation. Whenever you can take a quick break, but you don’t have the surroundings preferable to meditate, you can always do walking meditation.

It is a kind of observation meditation where you try to be in the present and observe your body while walking. Each and every step, each pressure point and muscle, observe as much as you can with all your senses open. Don’t be judgmental in any way, just observe. This is the easiest way to do walking meditation.

6. Mindful Eating:

It is similar to walking meditation in many ways. You just need to observe what is happening around your and inside you while you eat. This will force your mind to be in the present and not carried away with the thoughts, and that is the motive of meditation.  

7. Sleep meditation:

Meditating just before going to sleep, or after ending the travel day, can be pretty useful for your mind to remove all the tiredness of the day and get ready for a peaceful sleep. This article details the sleep meditation technique and issues and benefits.

8. Mini Meditation:

Mini meditation can be performed anywhere at any time. You do now need any posture or certain amount of time. It only takes 2 to 5 minutes and can be helpful in maintaining the mindfulness gained by the main session throughout the day. This article describes the essence of mini meditations and details out two major techniques.

So, now you know, “How to keep consistent with meditation while travelling?”

It is easy to skip meditation while travelling and there are a lot of interesting things happening when you travel that you just don’t feel like meditating. But that is when you need the real motivation to keep at it! Share this amongst your friends and family who cannot continue their meditations while travelling. Keep meditating! Keep exploring yourself through meditation!

-A Mere Meditator